That Ticket Is Refundable,
Just Don't Let Anyone Know

When your flight is canceled, because of a blackout or any other reason. (But don't tell anyone.)

That seems to have been the attitude at major airlines during the blackout mess last week. Carriers were quick to notify passengers that they were relaxing fare policies and would allow rebooking without penalty, for example, or even offer travel vouchers to affected customers good for future trips.

What no major carrier said in its press releases and public statements was that customers could get refunds if their flights were canceled. Yet that is the case: You are entitled to a refund, even on a nonrefundable ticket, in the event of a weather disruption, labor action or some event out of the airline's control. It's in the fine print. Look under "force majeure."

For the past year, full-service airlines have employed a use-it-or-lose-it policy on discounted tickets -- a policy that has caused great consternation among travelers. If you want to make a change, you have to rebook before your travel date and pay a $100 fee. Don't know when you want to reschedule the trip? Tough. (
AMR Corp.'s
American Airlines changed its policy on Tuesday. See related story.)

Unusual Case

The blackout, of course, was an unusual case, and airlines moved quickly to tell customers that they would relax that rigid policy and allow changes and re-booking. Last week, UAL Corp.'s United Airlines issued a "reaccomodation [sic] policy" for customers affected by the East Coast power outage on Thursday and Friday. "United is waiving the customary change fee for customers whose travel plans have been affected by the power outages," a statement said. "New travel must be re-ticketed no later than Sept. 13 and completed by Dec. 31," United said. "The full value of the unused ticket will be applied toward the purchase of the new ticket with no re-ticketing fee."

Likewise, American said it was giving affected customers "one date or time change" until Aug. 21 with no penalty. "In addition, customers with nonrefundable tickets who do not wish to immediately reschedule their travel plans will be given travel vouchers in the amount of their unused tickets for future use on American Airlines."

Even when asked on Monday about the possibility of refunds, several airline representatives said refunds wouldn't be given on nonrefundable tickets. "Our refund policy is this: Any passenger affected by the blackout can change their flight to within the next two weeks with no fee change or increased penalty," said Delta spokeswoman Catherine Stengel.

"Hopefully that's clear," she said. "They just have to fly within the next two weeks and they won't be charged a change fee."

Refunds? "No refunds," she said.

But what about the terms contained in the "contract of carriage," that legalese document posted on airline Web sites with more fine print and definitions than your last mortgage refinancing? Delta's contract of carriage, similar to others, is 61 pages long. On page 50, paragraph G of Rule 240 says that if Delta cancels, terminates, diverts, postpones or delays any flight "in the event of a force majeure event," the airline is liable "to refund in the original form of payment in accordance with involuntary refund rules any unused portion of the ticket." And fear not, there's an extensive definition of "force majeure" events. They include weather, acts of god, riots, civil commotion, embargoes, wars, hostilities, disturbances, strikes, work stoppages, labor shortage, fuel shortage or "any fact not reasonably foreseen, anticipated or predicted by Delta."

That does cover blackouts, but it doesn't really matter. At most airlines, even if it is the airline's fault that a flight is canceled or delayed, as opposed to events out of the airline's control, passengers are still entitled to refunds.
Continental Airlines
is an exception. Its rules state that in a "force majeure" situation, it will only refund in the form of a travel voucher.

Terry Trippler, consumer advocate on cheapseats.com (www.cheapseats.com), who alerted people about the refunds over the weekend, notes that rules at most airlines even allow for refunds when flights are delayed, provided the customer doesn't fly. Some airlines specify the delay has to be two hours or so; some don't specify at all. If you ever have a nonrefundable, use-it-or-lose-it ticket you can't use, one option might be to go out to the airport and if the flight is delayed, demand a full refund. You might want to take an attorney with you.

Few passengers know the refund rules, and few airlines will tell them. The reason seems fairly obvious: "They've got the cash and they don't want to give it back," says Mr. Trippler.

The statements issued clearly gave the impression to customers that if they had nonrefundable tickets, they had to rebook or take a voucher. But the official explanations for the omission are entertaining.

Costly Action

United's spokesman, Jason Schechter, said it didn't mention possible refunds in its statement to customers because "our statement mentions that customers were eligible for a waiver of change fees, and that includes many options, including a refund."

And American, in a fine bit of hair-splitting, said the policy issued during the blackout applied to passengers "affected" by the blackout, which could include someone whose flight actually flew, but didn't want to go because of the disruption. The carrier didn't include the refund policy because it assumed everyone knew that if your flight was canceled, you were entitled to a refund, not just a voucher or free rebooking.

"That's been part of the contract of carriage forever," said Todd Burke, a spokesman for American, even though it had been news to him until he checked and called back to say indeed, refunds were available to passengers on canceled flights.

After checking on the contract of carriage terms, Ms. Stengel at Delta said indeed, the airline would pay refunds to passengers whose flights were canceled. "Why didn't we publicize that? I couldn't tell you," she said. Asked if it was simply because airlines didn't want to pay refunds, she responded: "Yeah, you're right." She added that customer-service agents were telling passengers of the refund option, if they didn't want to reschedule.

You can't blame airlines for wanting to hang on to revenue, especially when their finances are already so bad. Announcing to customers that refunds were available probably would be a costly action.

Then again, lousy customer service -- and outright deception -- have a heavy cost, too.

About Scott McCartney

Scott McCartney writes The Middle Seat every Wednesday for the online Journal. Scott, The Wall Street Journal's Travel Editor, as well as deputy bureau chief in Dallas, has been on the airline beat for seven years -- long enough to see it go from bust to boom and back to bust.

Scott won the George Polk Award for transportation reporting in 2000 for exposing gross negligence by the Federal Aviation Administration. He also was honored in 2000 by the Deadline Club and New York's chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. Before joining the Journal in 1993, he spent 11 years at The Associated Press.

Scott, a native of Boston and graduate of Duke University, is the author of three books, including "ENIAC: The Triumphs and Tragedies of the World's First Computer," which was published in 1999. He's also an instrument-rated private pilot.